Roller guide member for full complement roller bearing

Abstract

A roller bearing apparatus including inner and outer rings defining a pair of raceway spaces, a plurality of rollers arranged in oppositely axially inclined rows each occupying one of the raceway spaces, and a guide member. The guide member includes a ring between the roller rows and oppositely extending shortened prongs or stubs extending only a short distance between the rollers so as not to take up space that otherwise could be used for one or more additional rollers. The pocket bottoms are angled to skew the rollers to promote roller precession or indexing. Alternatively, the guide member can include a reduced number of larger prongs to replace one or more of the stubs.

We claim: 
     
       1. A roller bearing apparatus comprising an inner ring member,   an outer ring member encircling the inner ring member, the inner and outer ring members defining therebetween a raceway space,   a plurality of rollers arranged in an axially inclined annular row in the raceway space, each of the rollers in the annular row including opposite first and second end portions, the second end portion of each of the rollers in the annular row being engageable with adjacent ones of the rollers in the annular row, and   a guide member including a ring, the ring including opposite radially extending sides, and the guide member including means for skewing the rollers so that the rollers precess when the bearing apparatus is used in an oscillatory application, the means for skewing the rollers including a plurality of circumferentially slanted surface portions on one of the radially extending sides, and a plurality of prongs extending in an axial direction from the ring, each of the prongs being circumferentially slanted in the same direction as the circumferentially slanted surface portions, and the prongs defining circumferentially slanted pockets therebetween, each of the circumferentially slanted surface portions defining a pocket bottom, and each of the rollers being positioned in one of the pockets so that each of the prongs extends between the first end portions of a pair of the rollers in the annular row to separate said first end portions circumferentially.   
     
     
       2. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the annular row of rollers includes a full complement of rollers. 
     
     
       3. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of the rollers in the annular row has a length, and wherein each of the prongs has a length less than one half the length of each of the rollers in the annular row. 
     
     
       4. A roller bearing apparatus comprising an inner ring member,   an outer ring member encircling the inner ring member, the inner and outer ring members defining therebetween a pair of axially spaced apart and oppositely axially inclined raceway spaces,   a plurality of rollers arranged in oppositely axially inclined annular rows, each of the annular rows of rollers being positioned in one of the raceway spaces, and each of the rollers in each of the annular rows including a first end portion, and a second end portion, the second end portion of each of the rollers in each of the annular rows being engageable with adjacent ones of the rollers in the same annular row, and   a guide member including a ring, the ring including opposite radially extending sides, the radially extending sides tapering radially inwardly, and the guide member including means for skewing the rollers, the means for skewing the rollers including a plurality of first circumferentially slanted surface portions on one of the radially extending sides, a plurality of second circumferentially slanted surface portions on the other of the radially extending sides, a plurality of first circumferentially slanted prongs extending from said one of the radially extending sides in a first axial direction, each of the first prongs extending between the first end portions of a pair of the rollers in one of the annular rows to separate said first end portions circumferentially, and a plurality of second circumferentially slanted prongs extending from said other of the radially extending sides in a second axial direction opposite the first axial direction, each of the second prongs extending between the first end portions of a pair of the rollers in the other of the annular rows to separate said first end portions circumferentially.   
     
     
       5. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein each of the annular rows of rollers includes a full complement of rollers. 
     
     
       6. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein the first prongs are circumferentially offset relative to the second prongs. 
     
     
       7. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein each of the rollers in each of the annular rows has a length, wherein each of the first prongs has a length less than one half the length of each of the rollers in said one of the annular rows of rollers, and wherein each of the second prongs has a length less than one half the length of each of the rollers in said other one of the annular rows of rollers. 
     
     
       8. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein the first and the second prongs are circumferentially slanted in the same circumferential direction. 
     
     
       9. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein the first and second circumferentially slanted surface portions provide each of the radially extending sides with a sawtooth configuration. 
     
     
       10. A roller bearing apparatus comprising an inner ring member,   an outer ring member encircling the inner ring member, the inner and outer ring members defining therebetween a first axially inclined raceway space,   a full complement of first rollers arranged in an axially inclined annular row in the first raceway space, and   a guide member including a ring, and means for skewing the first rollers so that the first rollers precess when the roller bearing apparatus is used in an oscillatory application, the means for skewing the first rollers including a plurality of first prongs extending from the ring in a first axial direction, each of the first prongs extending between a pair of the first rollers.   
     
     
       11. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 10 wherein the inner and outer ring members define therebetween a second raceway space spaced axially from the first raceway space, wherein the roller bearing apparatus includes a full complement of second rollers arranged in an axially inclined annular row in the second raceway space, and wherein the means for skewing the first rollers also skews the second rollers so that the second rollers precess when the roller bearing apparatus is used in an oscillatory application, the means for skewing the first and second rollers including a plurality of second prongs extending from the ring in a second axial direction opposite the first axial direction, each of the second prongs extending between a pair of the second rollers. 
     
     
       12. A roller bearing apparatus as set forth in claim 10 wherein each of the rollers has a length, and wherein each of the prongs has a length less than one half the length of each of the rollers.